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In our theory, feelings are not states; they are action upon
experience, action accompanied by judgement: the states, we hold,
are seated elsewhere; they may be referred to the vitalized body;
the judgement resides in the Soul, and is distinct from the
state- for, if it is not distinct, another judgement is demanded,
one that is distinct, and, so, we may be sent back for ever.
Still, this leaves it undecided whether in the act of judgement
the judging faculty does or does not take to itself something of
its object.
If the judging faculty does actually receive an imprint, then it
partakes of the state- though what are called the Impressions may
be of quite another nature than is supposed; they may be like
Thought, that is to say they may be acts rather than states;
there may be, here too, awareness without participation.
For ourselves, it could never be in our system- or in our liking-
to bring the Soul down to participation in such modes and
modifications as the warmth and cold of material frames.
What is known as the Impressionable faculty of the soul- to
pathetikon- would need to be identified: we must satisfy
ourselves as to whether this too, like the Soul as a unity, is to
be classed as immune or, on the contrary, as precisely the only
part susceptible of being affected; this question, however, may
be held over; we proceed to examine its preliminaries.
Even in the superior phase of the Soul- that which precedes the
impressionable faculty and any sensation- how can we reconcile
immunity with the indwelling of vice, false notions, ignorance?
Inviolability; and yet likings and dislikings, the Soul enjoying,
grieving, angry, grudging, envying, desiring, never at peace but
stirring and shifting with everything that confronts it!
If the Soul were material and had magnitude, it would be
difficult, indeed quite impossible, to make it appear to be
immune, unchangeable, when any of such emotions lodge in it. And
even considering it as an Authentic Being, devoid of magnitude
and necessarily indestructible, we must be very careful how we
attribute any such experiences to it or we will find ourselves
unconsciously making it subject to dissolution. If its essence is
a Number or as we hold a Reason-Principle, under neither head
could it be susceptible of feeling. We can think, only, that it
entertains unreasoned reasons and experiences unexperienced, all
transmuted from the material frames, foreign and recognized only
by parallel, so that it possesses in a kind of non-possession and
knows affection without being affected. How this can be demands
enquiry.
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